The people of Dartford, those who use the town on a daily basis, be it for the market, for their work or simply for pleasure (although this category is fairly limited) find themselves disconnected from the highstreet and the local politics of the town.

The current centre for the council lies a 10 minute walk from the centre by the train station to the north, and without that highstreet point of contact, the council has become the last point of engagement rather than the first.

By bringing the debating spaces and infamous 'One Stop Shop' back into the centre of public activity, and changing the means through which the public interact with these facilities, it is my hope that new life can be breathed back into what is currently a stale and unappreciated resource.

The creation of a disjointed courtyard, surrounded by a newly pedestrianized street, allows the formation of a new public realm with a continuation of the highstreet market wandering its way through the site. The concept revolves around the ideas of layers and viewpoints, with a visual connection between the highstreet and the park defining the decisions on structure and materiality. The thin piloti, upon which the heavy brickwork stands, frame chosen views through the site, allowing the layers of new and old activities to build up.

Each 'unit' of the site is then defined by it's harder, brick, outer 'crust' and it's softer, wooden, inner 'crumb', which portray the sites relations to its context, encouraging people to enter into the courtyards. This play with materiality then began to define the difference between heated and unheated spaces, and therefore the uses happening inside them. For example, the kitchens, attached to the coffee shop come 'One Stop Shop' up on the highstreet, is a heavy, heated space, whereas the coffee shop itself is a light, unheated space. The relationship between these two became integral to the continued design.

It is also key to remember that all people need to be happy is bread & circuses; food & entertainment.

Cambridge: A Delicate Art

As part of the Cambridge course, third year students spend 8 weeks partnered up with engineering students from the department opposite, working collaboratively on a project. This year, in a group of 5, we were tasked with designing a new roof for the Fitzwilliam Museum, a public art gallery next door to the department.

Due to the sensitivity of some of the older art works inside, this included a careful consideration of lighting and ventilation factors in order to provide a usable environment for the gallery. Several iterations later, and after extensive discussions regarding the dimensions of our structural loading, the design as seen here was created.

However, half the task was demonstrating the defining features of our design to an audience other than the typical architects. For this purpose, two main models were created, one at 1:200 describing the relationship between the retained frieze around the edge of the room and the new wooden roof, and the second looking in more detail at how the structural loading came down upon the walls.

Reconstructing Syria?

Born in 2015, a year when the current events in Syria were making regular news, these 9000 words attempt to discuss the future of one of the country's major cities in a time when its' situation is so uncertain. By focusing on historic precedents, namely Warsaw, Mostar and Beirut, the piece looks at the lessons learnt before applying such principles to this current war-zone.

The constructive criticism placed on UNESCO highlights the difficult position and various social, legal and political entanglements faced by aid organisations who attempt to do the 'best' in each situation by applying a 'one size fits all' policy.

The images to the left describe some of the analysis completed through the study of Warsaw, and depict the current crisis seen in Aleppo, through the before and after shots of the semi-famous Tilel Street in the city.

Please find a copy of this work here.

Cambridge: Taking football down

Tampering with the traditional football stadium sees Cambridge United sunk beneath the ground, it's seating coming to rest at ground level, positioned in front of a ring of retail around the site that mirrors the surrounding retail park.

By editing the relationship with its external surroundings the aim is to create a new experience, one centred on retail, that changes how the public interact with a game of football. Rather than a barred entrance, the game and the field is now accessible, and the game becomes part of the landscape rather than the focus. This is especially important for Cambridge as the current site has it use limited to the 2 or 3 games per month.

Football and it's facilities doesn't have to be limited to its fans, especially on this scale, change the relationships, change the game!

Teamwork, part of a group of four.

King's Cross: Unplugged

Bridging the divide between community and high-rise student housing, this acoustic music school is designed both low-end teaching and high-end performances. A circulation route around the building leads users up through the school to the theatre, positioned at the top, maximising the use of both light, currently obstructed by the high rise King's Cross developments, and the shape of the building.

Inside, the school takes the box in box structure to the extreme, with each classroom/music room being an individual, self enclosed space, hung within the much larger structure. These rooms then open into a large community space in which the music of the school is meant to mix and be enjoyed throughout the building.

King's Cross: In too deep

A sports centre designed for the turning point between the King's Cross development and the surrounding buildings, here it is the Guardian's huge office building, which holds a theatre within itself.

The sports centre focuses around rockclimbing, aiming to reduce the use of ropes and guides, instead replacing the traditional safety measures with a 10m deep plunge pool which mirrors the canal, creating the effect of an infinity pool.

The building design mediates between the office glass front, reflecting the Guardian building, and the cave space created on the Thames. The interior is defined by this cave, and the office spaces are designed around it.

Cambridge: We Must Change

Sustainability has always been a big topic of discussion in our work at Cambridge, but a short charrette over a weekend led to a whole new view on the topic. With the challenge being on how we adapt the city to these new requirements for sustainable cities it quickly became apparent that Cambridge as one of the oldest cities in the country, was going to be difficult challenge.

Indeed, it appeared to be far easier to change the people of the city, than the city itself. And so this design project turned into a campaign for change, a change in our daily habits rather than a change in the infrastructure.

This proved a far more interesting project than the addition of drainpipes, and eco-friendly showerheads to an ageing city.

Part of a collaborative project, performed in groups.

Tottenham: Flexible Precision

Tottenham's Holy Trinity Church sits in the middle of a busy high street, surrounded by arts venues, as well as numerous schools, of which one in particular, the local C of E primary school, visit the church regularly.

Despite the varied typology of shops along the highstreet, and the building uses within the surrounding area, there is a considerable lack of community space. The Church sits in front on an under-utilised green, and the project, with it's active client, became about integrating the church with the green, but also with the highstreet.

These idea came to embody a group of spaces, based to the south of the space, that could act independently or as a whole. The diagrams demonstrate an ability of the one story spaces to open and close depending on the needs of the client, making this a flexible design that could provide precisely for the needs of the community, be that school children or local arts groups.

This was also a project based in hand-drawing and trying to refine the design rather than the image of the project.

Cambridge: Mapping Facades

The decision to map the facades of the city came with a desire to make people look up. The entire ground floor of Cambridge's city centre is built according to the design of each retail chain. But the upper floors, be it first or fourth divulge their secrets and their ages. This project came alongside an app that created an additional layer of information about the highstreet when placed over images of the city.

The desire, the intention was to enable tourists to understand that their cameras did not always need to be pointed at King's College's Chapel, but that the 3 floors above Wasabi were just as interesting. And for those who were residents of the city, it was to reintroduce that feeling of being a tourist, of looking up and discovering something completely new in an oh-so-familiar city.

Christ's May Ball 2016

As Head of Design for Christ's 2016 May Ball, I was in charge of £18,000 to decorate the event. Among the responsibilities was the final decision on the theme of the ball, and the production of all the graphic media, posters, tickets, programmes and additional graphic needs such as labels for the gin we had produced for the ball.

Although stressful, the ball was a success with 5 star ratings from the guests and a very enjoyable night.

The committee was put together two years in advance of the ball, so everyone involved had a lot invested in its production, everything from the launch of the theme to the public, mainly members of the college, to the set-up and take-down of the actual event. With a very capable team of 6 working beneath me, I was able to delegate and manage the work to produce a fantastic night.

King's Affair 2015

King's Affair is a cheaper, alternative to the May Balls that run at Cambridge. In 2015 I was Deputy Head of Design, and with a budget of £2500 we aimed to pull off a fantastic night. The theme 'Glitch' saw rooms full of broken cds, an underground bunker turned into a circuitboard, and fellow's portraits turned into memes, among many other things. I was, again, in chair of all print media, including promotional material, the logo, the programme and the posters.

A fantastic night with 5 star reviews!

Christ's May Ball 2014

Joining the 2014 May Ball team halfway through the design process allowed me to begin to understand the work that goes into events like these. My role within the team was skewed more towards set-up and the last few days before the ball, working to build the emerald city which consisted of a dozen or so shining beacons lighting up the path between two main stages.

This event introduced me to the May Ball Scene, and was the reason I wanted to become Head of Design two years later for Christ May Ball 2016.

Fantastic Night: 5 star reviews!

Arcsoc: Publicity & Sponsorship

Arcsoc is the University of Cambridge's student run Architecture Society. Each year the three years of undergraduate architects, put on events (parties / cabarets), talks, films and life-drawing, all in aid of raising money to move our work down to London to put on our end of year exhibition.

This year we were in the OXO Tower on the Southbank for our 2016 exhibition, and this year I was involved in the publicity and sponsorship roles, helping to raise money and additional money to ensure that our exhibition was a success.

And, according to Spencer de Gray, this was the best exhibition yet, with an amazing venue and a very hard-working committee. Running from the 14th to the the 17th July 2016, the aim for each exhibition is for all three years work to be displayed, and for the third years to attain some sort of recognition / job prospects for their year out in industry.

Christ's Films

Christ's college hosts films once a week throughout the year, bringing together people throughout the university, and trying to show a mix of classic and modern films.

Each has its own promotional material, facebook event and audience target which the film needs to reach in order to break even / make a profit.

Law Society: Graphic Design

The Cambridge Law Society prides itself on holding excellent events throughout the year, and working with them provided a challenge in creating high-end material for the varied and wide-reaching range of events they put on throughout the year.

ADC Theatre: Publicity

With the ADC producing so many plays a year, there is alway opportunity for design and publicity work. I am currently working on publicity for a play at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall and the Cambridge Panto.

The Mikado performed at the Minack Theatre, Cornwall, by the Gilbert & Sullivan Society

The Duchess of Malfi - Rehearsal Shooting

Some images of rehearsals later used for publicity

Speakeasy

Cambridge's poetry evenings occur regularly through term time.

Christ's Events: Publicity

Events within college require their own publicity, and each has their own theme. Designed to keep high spirits within the students throughout the year, each is quite fun and tongue-in-cheek.

Birmingham: Handball

Working for a friend, these designs were put together for a newly formed handball team at the University of Birmingham. An iterative design process, followed by some intense discussions saw the final design, now printed on their sportswear.